SBI MLS Player of the Month: Will Johnson

There were players who scored more goals, and some who registered more assists, but you will be hard-pressed to find a player who meant more to his team’s success in April than Portland Timbers captain Will Johnson.

The Canadian midfielder led a Timbers squad that rattled off a 3-0-1 record during March, and while he managed one goal during that month (Johnson’s brace vs. Colorado came on March 30th), Johnson’s leadership and overall contributions in the engine room of Portland’s impressive system earned him SBI MLS Player of the Month honors.

The month will be remembered for Johnson’s brilliant free-kick winner against San Jose to start the month, but his work in central midfield alongside the excellent Diego Chara was key to Portland enjoying a breakout month.

My thoughts: Canada has a poor national team for the same reason the USMNT is ranked 28th in the world. The US and Canada lack the footballing history and value-placement on soccer of other, better nations.

Nations place a value on certain sports. In the US, there’s a high value on the big 4. Canadians place a high value on hockey. Looking at other lowly-ranked large FIFA nations, Aussies place a high value on Aussie rules football; South Africans places a high value on rugby; Indians place a high value on cricket. Each of those countries has a large population and a large potential talent pool, and yet none cracks the FIFA top 25.

Once these countries’ populations begin to value soccer more – and the incentive for playing professionally reaches a tipping point – then we’ll see the quality grow there.

Canada has quite a few players who play in the Bundesliga, a guy in the EPL, a few in the Championship, a key player on PSV in Holland, some of the best MLS players, etc. They were good enough to make it to the Hex, and from there anything can happen-they just imploded on the last day in the most even of the semifinal groups.

As a Timbers fan, I’m happy with this, but I think Clint Irwin deserves some consideration. With how bad Colorado is doing with injuries, he’s helped them stay off the bottom (so far). Been amazing in goal.